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Ms Fuhr spent the last 11 years analysing the ETF market at US investment bank Morgan Stanley, where she built a reputation as one of the leading analysts in the field. She will be responsible for BGI's new ETF Research and Implementation Strategy team.

The team will produce analysis on the ETF sector worldwide. It will also issue regular ETF asset allocation reports for BGI's institutional and advised individual investors.

Ms Fuhr will join BGI on 15 September and be based in London. She will also be building BGI's client relationships in Europe, the Americas, Australasia and the Middle East.

Blake Grossman, chief executive at BGI, said the division's aim in hiring Ms Fuhr was to capitalise on the head start it had in the industry through the iShares brand.

But James Norton, director at Evolve Financial Planning, said the information BGI distributed to investors was already adequate and that the division needed to focus on providing a wider range of ETFs at lower cost.

"They've got competition with Lyxor and db x-trackers, which they should be leading, not following. The charges on their FTSE100 and FTSE250 trackers are 0.4 per cent. People who want to track the broadest market want the FTSE All-Share, and they don't offer it, which is a weakness."

By contrast, Mr Norton said the fees on Lyxor Asset Management's FTSE100 and FTSE250 ETFs were 0.3 per cent and 0.35 per cent, respectively.